


Stay In Your Lane

by shuuvee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: All of NCT picks on Taeil, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bowling alley, Crack, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, My first attempt at an NCT fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13139163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shuuvee/pseuds/shuuvee
Summary: Moon Taeil is the mom-friend to seven "children" whose sole purpose is to make his love life a living hell. Yes, even in a bowling alley on the day before Christmas Eve.





	Stay In Your Lane

“Mark, get back here!” Taeil shouted, smoothing his caramel brown hair back with his free hand, his other hand parked on his hip to seem a little more punitive. The black-haired teenager started walking his way, but it wasn’t very effective – he knew it wasn’t. Despite being the oldest by a good year or so, he earned so little respect from his group of best friends. It used to be “Taeil-hyung” this and “hyung” that; now he’d be lucky to get a please and thank you from the little brats. 

“Yeah yeah, what is it, Taeil?” Mark absentmindedly replied, still texting away with all of the dexterity of a high schooler.

See? No respect these days.

“Shoe size,” Taeil curtly asked.

“Oh,” he muttered, finally glancing up at an impatient-looking Taeil and the attendant standing behind him. “260,” Mark answered. And, at lightning speed, the attendant pulled out a pair of hideous-looking bowling shoes, off-reds and miscolored whites combining in some sort of frenetic pattern. 

“Now you can go join the rest,” the eldest instructed. “265 for me.”

The clerk handed him his equally-tacky shoes and promptly moved onto the next customer. Taeil had already paid – after, of course, coordinating the whole goddamn thing between seven other teenage-slash-early-20s boys. It was a nightmare finding a mutually-agreeable time, but he finally succeeded after a few weeks of trying. Taeyong was the hardest to nail down; after going to college and dyeing his hair bright-fucking-pink, Taeyong had been nearly impossible to coordinate with. There was always a party this week or an exam that week… Taeyong was just too cool for the rest of them. Haechan would only go if Mark was going, and Mark would only go if Doyoung went, and Doyoung would only go on Saturday. Jaehyun was pretty cut-and-dry: no Sundays because they conflicted with ultimate Frisbee. Yuta and Winwin were the easiest to convince; he told Winwin that Yuta was going to be there and Yuta that Winwin was going to be there.

This was the first time they had all been together in at least a few months, and it was solely because mom-friend Taeil took the time to keep pestering everyone: they were all free the day before Christmas Eve. They all had been close friends in high school, spending damn near every waking extracurricular moment together. Their little group had been practically inseparable – until college came along. Now with all of them in undergrad, Taeil thought the rest might have grown up a bit. He stepped away from the counter and scanned the bowling alley for any sign of his friends.

Apparently nothing had changed.

Any misgivings about the maturity of his friends completely disappeared when he spotted them: Doyoung and Taeyong were fighting over the terminal where they were inputting names, Yuta was trying to pull Winwin onto his lap while the younger was thumbing through the food menu, and he watched in real time as Haechan chucked one of his shoes at an oblivious Mark, earning a look of total disbelief from the black-haired boy. He hadn’t even begun to process the chaos when the preternaturally unproblematic Jaehyun snuck up behind him.

“They’re probably gonna kick us out, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied. He paused, then shook his head. “I just don’t care anymore.”

“That’s a great attitude to have,” Jaehyun answered with a wry smile.

“Well, shall we?”

“We shall.”

* * *

* * *

* * *

Two frames in and miraculously they still hadn’t been kicked out. Haechan and Doyoung erupted in an uncontrolled fake-rage when Mark got his second strike in a row. Yuta literally only paid attention when Winwin was up (and only cheered for him). Meanwhile, Winwin pretended that Yuta didn’t exist – “he’s playing hard-to-get on purpose,” Jaehyun informed him. Taeyong already tried to change Doyoung’s score once using the terminal, but was promptly banned from being anywhere near the scorekeeper when the younger caught him. The whole scene was only made more ridiculous by the matching red Santa hats that Taeil had brought with him and passed out before they started bowling. In retrospect, Taeil was pretty sure that the only reason that they hadn’t been kicked out was because there was like no one else there.

Well, they _were_ the only ones there. After Taeil’s second frame, a lone guy started a game a few lanes down. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn’t noticed the guy earlier.

Okay, so it wasn’t exactly unknown amongst his friend group that, yes, the flamboyant mom-friend Taeil was gay. It didn’t bother any of them – especially with Yuta and Winwin trying to get into each other’s pants constantly. However, just because it didn’t bother them certainly didn’t mean that Taeil never caught shit for being gay. Every time – yup, _every time_ – a cute boy caught Taeil’s attention and someone from the group noticed, he would get taunted about it for weeks. Mark and Haechan were the worst, texting him about his “crush” incessantly. It would’ve been cute if it wasn’t so goddamn insolent sometimes. 

It got worse when they figured out that Taeil’s “type” was tall guys. He looked over toward the new guys once more and, of course, the guy had to be at least 180 cm, probably taller than Doyoung. Fuck. He was going to have to play it cool or one of the others would pick up on it. Luckily the only one who was really paying attention was Jaehyun, and he didn’t care much.

Or so he thought. Mark was tugging on his sleeve: “Hey, it’s your turn.”

“Oh, sorry,” he halfheartedly replied, getting up to walk toward the ball return. Before he could make it very far, Mark had already started connecting the dots, looking up at where Taeil had been looking and then back at Taeil. He could feel the dread washing over his face as he saw Mark’s features light up.

“Hyung~” Mark sing-songed, skipping around to intercept Taeil. “What were you looking at over there?”

Mark had said it just loud enough for the others to catch on, looking down the bowling alley for the source of Taeil’s forthcoming mortification. One-by-one the others started to realize what was going on. Haechan was the first pipe up: “Don’t you mean, _who_ were you looking at, hyung?”

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. He could see Haechan and Mark’s mischievous smiles spelling out his doom. However, it was Taeyong who made him want to curl up in a ball and die.

“Why don’t you two go over there and tell tall, dark, and handsome that Taeil-hyung’s in love with him?”

Doyoung started hollering while the rest snickered uncontrollably. Even Jaehyun lost his composure and was laughing along. Taeyong wore his shit-eating grin with pride despite Taeil’s own attempts to give him the worst death glare of his life. After giving up on Taeyong, he looked back over his shoulder to see the other boy looking over at them, probably wondering what all the commotion was about. Taeil just brought his knees up his chest in the seat and pulled his Santa hat farther down his forehead, trying to hide his quickly-reddening cheeks.

“Please don’t,” he pleaded. “I’m not even interested in him.”

“Uh huh,” Doyoung mocked, calling Taeil’s bluff.

“Yeah, he’s totally your type!” Mark shouted, perhaps loud enough for the other boy to hear.

Taeil reached for the black-haired boy, pulling him down hard and shushing in his ear. “Shut up,” he whisper-shouted.

Mark just giggled in response, breaking free of Taeil’s grip and then promptly pulling Haechan, presumably to go chat with the other boy. He was not having any of it, sinking further into his seat and hiding from his misery.

“Looks like they’re talking to him,” Jaehyun nonchalantly said. Taeil glanced over and saw Jaehyun looking back down the bowling lanes. “Mark and Haechan are both smiling pretty hard.”

Taeil shot him a dark look before glancing over at Taeyong and Doyoung, who were both incredulous (and ecstatic) about what was unfolding right now.

“Oh, they’re pointing at you now. The other boy is looking over here now.”

“ _Are you done giving me a play-by-play yet?_ ” Taeil whined. He briefly looked over toward Mark, Haechan, and the other boy only to see all three of them staring directly at him. Mark started nodding, saying something quickly to the new guy. Taeil felt his cheeks flush with heat, a dusty pink shade probably washing over his features. 

“Dude, your cheeks are redder than Winwin’s bowling ball,” Jaehyun added.

“Ohmygod, _shut up_ , Jaehyun.” He looked over at Taeyong again. “Are you happy, you little demon?”

“Very,” the pink-haired boy replied.

“Y’know,” Yuta piped up. “It’s still your turn, Taeil-hyung.”

He groaned in response. At least he could pretend not to care if he decided to bowl instead of cowering in embarrassment. He got up, his steely and robotic motions a crutch to prevent him from looking toward the other boy. Taeil grabbed his green bowling ball, and looked down the lane toward the ten bowling pins staring back. Even while he was pretending to keep his entire focus on the lane in front of him, all of his thoughts kept returning toward the new guy. _God_ , he probably thought he was such a dork, especially with all the shit Mark and Haechan were feeding him. He tried to shake it off, running up to throw his bowling ball down the lane.

To his complete and unending dread, the ball didn’t release when it was supposed to, his fingers staying looked in the bowling ball’s holes until his arm was pretty high up on the upswing. Instead, his bowling ball flew up and over the barrier between their lane and the next lane over, landed in the next lane over with a loud crash, and promptly found the gutter. Moments later, his crowd of “friends” behind him erupted in laughter. He didn’t think he could feel any more embarrassed after Mark and Haechan’s little stunt. Nope – Taeil looked down the bowling alley and saw Mark doubled-over dying of laughter, Haechan wiping his eyes free of laughter-induced tears, and, yes, even the new guy had a little smile on his lips. 

Taeil scurried back to his seat, even Jaehyun not sparing him any pity. “Just kill me,” Taeil muttered, covering his face with his hands.

“And miss out on all of this?” Taeyong chimed in. “No fucking way.”

“Fuck you.”

“M – Mark and Haechan are walking back over,” Jaehyun gasped out, still recovering from spurts of laughter. Moments later, Taeil heard Mark’s shrill voice before he saw the black-haired boy.

“So his name is Johnny, and he’s actually really nice,” Mark reported as if he hadn’t just gone on a mission to embarrass the shit out of him. “He goes to a university around here and bowls every Saturday morning. He also feels really bad for hyung.”

“He still laughed a little, though,” Haechan interjected.

“Only a little!” the older of the duo argued. “Johnny-hyung is also pretty quiet, he’d be perfect for a loudmouth like Taeil-hyung.”

“You. Little. Shit,” Taeil spelled out, his murderous eyes boring into Mark’s soul. 

“Hey, calm down hyung! I’m just trying to hook you up, man. You should really go talk to Johnny-hyung.”

“And what!?” Taeil protested. “Apologize for my dickwad friends?”

“I don’t know, give him your number,” Taeyong suggested.

* * *

* * *

* * *

“Or, I don’t know, avoid giving him your number for eight more frames while looking over at him every four seconds and asking Mark and Haechan whether they really think he likes you?” Taeyong mused.

Taeil shot another look™ over at Taeyong before huffing out a sigh. “It’s not like I signed up for this!”

“Uh, yeah you did,” Doyoung replied. “You signed up to be friends with us.”

“Six! Years! Ago!”

“Shoulda seen it coming,” Yuta interjected.

“You guys are the least helpful friends in existence,” Taeil deadpanned.

“Oh my god, I’m done with this,” Taeyong grumbled, getting up and grabbed Taeil’s arm. “I’m going to help you help yourself by making you talk to your crush.”

Taeil felt his eyes go wide. “What!?” he shouted. “I didn’t ask for this!”

He started flailing and trying to get away, but Taeyong’s grip was surprisingly strong. The pink-haired boy yanked him along, Taeil watching as the rest of his friends smirked at his Taeyong problem.

“Look alive, hyung.”

Taeil swung his head around, seeing he was just moments away from being at Johnny’s lane. He tried to fix his hair with his free arm; Taeyong snickered at his self-consciousness. Johnny was still finishing his frame, and Taeyong waited for the taller boy to start walking back toward the seats behind the lane before explaining why they were there.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt,” Taeyong started. “My name’s Taeyong, but I really feel like you should get to know my friend Taeil here.”

Without any warning, Taeyong nudged him forward toward Johnny, as if he was prodding a kindergartener to their first day of school.

“He really likes you, by the way,” Taeyong added before hightailing back to the others.

“TAEYONG!” Taeil shouted. “I’m going to kill you!”

He looked back over at Johnny, who seemed both amused and confused at the same time. Taeil could feel himself getting nervous, words pouring out of his mouth with no filter attached.

“Hey, I’m really sorry for my so-called friends, they have no decency or self-control, and I’m honestly surprised that we haven’t been kicked out of here because they’re the worst. I organize one day at the bowling alley and they manage to drag you into it. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for this to happen, I really should be going back—“

“—It’s really okay, Taeil,” Johnny interrupted, smiling slightly. Taeil looked up at him, trying to see if he was beng genuine. He couldn’t believe that someone would put up with half of his friends’ shit and still be okay with it, there was no way that he would be fine with some random assholes making him the subject of their friend’s embarrassment. 

“Really?” he finally asked.

“Really really,” Johnny replied. 

“Oh well, that’s a relief, Mark and Haechan can be really irritating when they put their minds to it. And Taeyong can be even worse because he acts all cool and like he doesn’t care until he pipes up with an ice-cold takedown. You didn’t meet Doyoung but he only eggs them on until it gets really bad.”

Johnny just laughed in response, seeming to agree with him. He smiled in response, butterflies still floating up to his stomach. He looked around, his eyes locking onto the scorekeeper for Johnny’s lane. Taeil started counting the strikes and spares.

“Wow, you’re really good at this…” Taeil muttered aloud.

Johnny laughed again. “You’re the real pro here.”

He looked back at the taller boy with a puzzled look.

“I don’t think I could throw the ball over to the other lane even if I tried,” the black-haired boy added. 

“Ohmygod, I’m never going to live that down,” Taeil whined, covering his face with his hands again.

“It wouldn’t have been so ridiculous if you weren’t wearing the Santa hat,” Johnny said while laughing. “Did you buy all of them?”

“Y-yeah, how’d you guess?”

“You seem like the responsible one out of your friends.”

“Yeah, I am.” Taeil laughed before settling into a prolonged silence with the taller boy.

“Well, do you wanna come play with us? No pressure of course but like I just wanted to offer because I could kinda use someone on my side…” he added, his voice trailing off.

Johnny paused for a second. Taeil could feel his heart beating out of his chest – why did he have to be so weird about it?

“Sure,” Johnny finally answered. “Lemme just grab my coat and stuff.”

“Great!” Taeil shouted, perhaps a little too loud. “I can grab your ball.”

“As long as you promise not to throw it down the wrong lane.” 

Taeil turned bright red again, freezing in place and looking over at Johnny. “I’m kidding!” he added while grabbing his coat.

“Yeah, you’ll fit right in,” Taeil deadpanned.

The two walked back over while laughing a little. Taeyong was the first to notice them, immediately interrupting them with a question:

“So, did you get his number yet?”

Taeil responded quickly: “No, I told him he has to get a strike in the other lane first.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me on Tumblr at dyegu.tumblr.com! Thank you for reading <3


End file.
